Policy Background
- As a devolved matter, ordinarily the passage of a Budget Act to authorise the issue of sums from the Consolidated Fund of Northern Ireland would be taken through the Northern Ireland Assembly by Ministers in the Northern Ireland Executive. However, there has been no Executive since 9 January 2017, when the then deputy First Minister of Northern Ireland resigned, which also resulted in the First Minister ceasing to hold office. The Northern Ireland Assembly has not met since its first post-election meeting in March 2017. Without an Executive to agree a Budget and a sitting Assembly to pass Budget Acts, it falls to Parliament to legislate to provide authority for expenditure in Northern Ireland.
- Budget Acts are normally passed twice during each financial year when the devolved institutions are in place. The first is done based on the opening budget position for the financial year following the agreement of a Budget. The second is done at the end of the financial year to seek authority for the changes which have been made to the budget allocations during the course of the financial year. The Northern Ireland Budget Act 2018 was passed by Parliament in July 2018 in order to provide the required authorisations and appropriations for the full 2018-19 financial year based on the 2018-19 Budget announced in Parliament for the Northern Ireland departments by the Secretary of State on 8 March 2018, adjusted for the distribution of some centrally held funding, and technical transfers between departments for items such as central HR functions.
- Since then, Northern Ireland departments have continued to manage the delivery of services in Northern Ireland. This has involved the reallocation and reprioritisation of some budgets, and also the allocation of new funding which has become available to the Northern Ireland administration as a result of the funds being authorised by Parliament in the UK Estimates process. This Act authorises these revisions
- This Act would provide authority for departments and other public bodies in Northern Ireland to deliver public services for the remainder of the year ending 31 March 2019 based on the Northern Ireland Civil Service’s final budget plans. This supersedes the authorisations provided in the Northern Ireland Budget (Anticipation and Adjustments) Act 2018 and the Northern Ireland Budget Act 2018.
- In addition to providing the authorisations and appropriations for the revised amounts required for the full 2018-19 financial year, the Act also provides authorisations and appropriations for a vote on account. This is to allow Northern Ireland departments and other public bodies to continue to deliver public services into the first half of the 2019-20 financial year.
- This vote on account is a normal process for any Supply and Appropriation Act and does not imply the setting of a 2019-20 Budget for the Northern Ireland departments and other public bodies. Its purpose is to provide access to cash and resources, approximately 70% of the amount authorised for the previous financial year, to ensure that services can continue to be delivered pending the consideration of a Budget Act for the full 2019-20 financial year. This could be taken forward in due course by a restored Executive, or at Westminster in its absence.
- This Act is a minimal step to ensure that public services continue to be provided in Northern Ireland. It leaves in place the requirement for devolved spending decisions to be made by the Northern Ireland Executive or, in the ongoing absence of Ministers, the Northern Ireland Civil Service. In addition the revised allocations set out in the Act continue to be based on the advice of the Head of the Northern Ireland Civil Service and the Northern Ireland Civil Service Board, as was the case for the Northern Ireland Budget Act 2018.
- No new money is voted as a result of the Act. Instead it appropriates sums already in the Consolidated Fund of Northern Ireland, together with revenue generated locally within Northern Ireland under the Assembly’s devolved powers.
